VIP

What VIP has been studied for

The reasons people look it up, roughly in order of how often, and what research exists for each. Interest in a use is not evidence that it works; the evidence is stated under each one.

Severe lung injury

Where it has actually been trialled, as intravenous aviptadil in hospitalised patients with respiratory failure.

Inflammation

Its natural role, and the basis for most of the interest in it.

Mould illness and CIRS

The reason most people search for it, as a nasal spray. This use has no controlled trial behind it.

Mechanism of Action

How VIP works

VIP side effects: what studies reported

VIP widens blood vessels, which is where nearly everything reported comes from.

Dose-related findings. Its blood-pressure effects are dose-related, which is why hospital trials gave it with monitoring.

Source: Reports outside trials, largely nasal, plus the pharmacology and the hospital trials of aviptadil. This is a summary of published findings, not a complete safety profile and not medical advice. Questions about VIP belong with a licensed clinician who knows your history.

The dots after each gene are where your own result goes. Your report fills them in with the two letters you carry at that position.

Often discussed alongside

Compounds that come up next to VIP in research and discussion. Each has its own page. None of this is a suggestion to combine them.

KPV

also studied for inflammationEmerging Evidence

KPV (Lys-Pro-Val)

A three-amino-acid fragment snipped off the end of a hormone your body already makes. Almost every page describes it as switching on a melanocortin receptor; the research fairly clearly says it does not. What it appears to do instead is more interesting, and it is why nearly all the data are about the gut rather than skin. No human study of KPV has been published.

4

Gene variants

15+

Studies

Thymosin Alpha-1 (also studied for immune function)

Access

Access and legal status

VIP is not an FDA-approved drug. Products sold online as “research chemicals” are labelled not for human use, and FDA treats them as unapproved drugs when they are marketed for people. We don't link to any seller, and nothing on this page is a recommendation to obtain or use it.

Educational information only, not medical advice. Most peptides are not FDA-approved. Do not start, stop or change any medication or peptide because of this page; talk to a licensed clinician.

Worth knowing about VIP

Interactions and situations where there is a specific reason to be careful. Where the honest answer is that nobody has studied something, it says so and says what that leaves open.

The trialled use and the sold use are not the same

Intravenous aviptadil in an intensive care unit and a nasal spray marketed for mould illness share a molecule and nothing else. Route, dose, setting and monitoring all differ, and results from one say nothing about the other.

It widens blood vessels, so blood pressure can drop

This is its core action rather than a side effect. In hospital use it is given with monitoring for exactly that reason. Flushing and a fall in blood pressure are the expected effects of a vasodilator.

It breaks down very quickly

Natural VIP has a half-life of a couple of minutes in blood, which is the central problem with using it as a drug and the reason the hospital trials used continuous infusion.

Frequently Asked Questions